


Namaste

by Anonymous



Category: Lockwood & Co. - Jonathan Stroud
Genre: Also the skull is back, Crack Treated Seriously, F/M, Group dynamics, Just let them have a little fun ok, Team Building, Yoga, i don’t make the rules, i guess, maybe a little crack fic-ish, yoga was mentioned one and we will never forget it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-08
Updated: 2020-07-08
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:53:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25148770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Holly insists on a little team building activity.
Relationships: Lucy Carlyle/Anthony Lockwood
Comments: 7
Kudos: 40
Collections: Anonymous





	Namaste

**Author's Note:**

> This may be the goofiest thing I’ve ever written. I hope it at least makes someone smile.

_ “Ooh, Lucy, you should see what you look like from behind!” _

I gritted my teeth.

“Shut up,” I hissed at the skull.“How much longer do we have to stay like this?” I demanded of George.

“Just breathe into the pose, Luce,” George said, unperturbed.“Yoga is supposed to be relaxing.”

It was a blessing that George and Holly rarely agreed on anything.Either one of them with their mind set on something was a force to be reckoned with, but together they became a single, unstoppable force. Holly had been on a fitness kick - nothing really new there - but with the new official addition of Kipps to Lockwood and Co., and talk of interviewing new agents, she also started suggesting various team building activities.Me, I thought crossing the frozen wasteland of the Other Side together was team building enough to last any group of people a lifetime or two, but George had eagerly suggested one of his many hobbies.

That’s how we all ended up in the rapier room,backsides in the air in some ridiculous position called Downward Dog.

George was in charge of the whole charade, which, I supposed, saved us from whatever his frighteningly loose sweatpants might have revealed.Holly’s form was perfect, obviously.Kipps was barely following George’s instructions citing his injury which only seemed to act up whenever he didn’t want to do something. Not that I blamed him.Lockwood was trying valiantly to organize his elbows and knees according to George’s cues, looking uncharacteristically yet endearingly ungraceful.

_ “You like what you see now, just wait until those trousers split down the back!” _

Then there was me - unflattering position and all, listening to a ratty old skull make suggestive comments. 

“All right, now come forward into plank,” George said.“No, not like that, Luce.Like a push up, sort of.Wrists under your elbows.”

“I didn’t think you knew what a push up was, Cubbins,” Kipps interjected, leaning back on his hands and watching the rest of us struggle.

“What I’d like to know,” Lockwood said, the tension of the position coming through in his voice. “Is how you manage to do all this, but you whine after 30 seconds of rapier practice!”

“Did I mention that you should focus solely on your own practice instead of worrying about what anyone else is doing or not doing?”George asked pointedly.

_ “Uh oh, Lucy, that means no ogling Lockwood.Whatever are you going to do?” _

My arms were starting to shake.

“Come on, George!”

“Ok, ok, drop your knees and lower your chest to the floor.”

I managed to mash my face into the floor in an uncontrolled sort of flop.Thank goodness for Holly, at least I could be sure the floor had been washed sometime in recent history.I glanced sideways at Lockwood, finding him with his face also mashed against the floor,and also looking sideways at me.I couldn’t help the laugh bubbling up at how ridiculous and awkward we both looked.In my defense, I tried really hard to stifle it.

“Now push your shoulders off the floor into cobra.”

“Looks more like beached walrus if you ask me.”Kipps observed. 

I failed at containing my laughter.Lockwood was struggling to keep his own face straight, and Kipps was smirking at having derailed the rest of us.George and Holly both looked supremely disappointed in all of us.

“You’re not taking this seriously.”George took his glasses off and rubbed them agitatedly on his sweatshirt.“Alright, push up and back into downward dog.”

Oh, joy.Backsides in the air again. 

“Now step your feet forward between you hands”

As I stepped forward, I thought I heard a slight tearing sound.The skull let out whoop.

_“Here we go! I knew those trousers couldn’t hold out forever!”_

“And stand back up and bring your hands together in front of you.”

Lockwood’s face was flushed, possibly from the inverted position, but more likely from the wardrobe malfunction.

“Well, thank you, George. That was certainly... interesting.”

Lockwood stepped back to lean casually against the wall.

“You’re not finished.” George adjusted his glasses and fixed Lockwood with a stare.“You’ve got to do it all again on the other side!Otherwise you’ll be lopsided!”

“I’ll take my chances.” Lockwood edged toward the door.

“You split your trousers, didn’t you?” Kipps’ famous Fittes diplomacy didn’t seem to extend to Lockwood.

George snorted.

“Not to say I told you so, but I distinctly remember saying to wear something loose and comfortable.”He rubbed his glasses on his sweatshirt again, this time in the ‘know-it-all’ way that made the ‘I told you so’ entirely unnecessary.

“I didn’t have anything loose to wear!”Lockwood protested, face going even redder.

“You’ve got pajamas, don’t you?”

“Yes, but I don’t wear them at two in the afternoon!”

“Alright, enough,” Holly interrupted.“Lockwood, go change into...something else, and I’ll mend those trousers later.”

Lockwood scuttled out of the room.

“Holly, I’ve got to hand it to you,”. Kipps said. “this team bonding thing was a capital idea.Definitely should do this more often.”

I chucked a convenient wad of dish towels from Holly’s clean laundry basket.

“You didn’t even do anything!”

_ “Ooh, a fight!This afternoon keeps getting better and better!” _

Kipps swiped the towel out of the air.

“Well, I did, and I thought it was lovely.Thank you, George.”Holly glared and me, Kipps and the skull for good measure.

“ _You all are as bad at team building as you are at fighting ghosts!”_ The skull cackled.  “ _Look at you!Munro looks like she planning to egg whisk the lot if you, and Cubbins is sulking because you all didn’t jump when he said Simon Says.”_

The skull kind of had a point.But still.We were the team who put an end to the Problem. Who stopped a decades old plot in its tracks.Yeah, Kipps was needling George who was looking as sulky as he did when I got the last biscuit, and yeah, Holly was chirping on about even more dreadful bonding activities, but we were a team in truest sense of the word. Not just because we worked together, but because we trusted, respected and cared for each other. 

Yes, even the skull.And what was a great team without a great leader?Speaking of, Lockwood reappeared wearing his pajama bottoms, and still managing to look more stylish than I managed on a good day.

“Alright, lets do this,” he said, taking his spot beside me again.George looked pleased to have corrupted Lockwood into appearing in nightwear at all hours, and pushed his glasses further up his nose.

“ Bringing your palms together in front of you....”

George started the routine over.

Soon, I fell out of a low lunge that I took a little too literally, and took Lockwood out with me when I attempted to catch myself on his shoulder.Kipps, whose own super tight trousers kept him wary of anything requiring bending, retreated to the kitchen to get some sweets.Holly eventually gave up trying to keep a straight face as we wobbled and flopped our way through the rest of the sequence, and even George seemed to be enjoying himself, though that was probably because he was getting to boss everyone around.

We ended in a pose George called corpse pose, which considering the corpses I’ve seen, sounds very unpleasant, but was actually rather enjoyable.Lying on our backs staring up at ceiling, Lockwood moved his upturned hand ever so slightly closer to mine and brushed his thumb against mine.I grinned.The skull retched.George reminded us all to breathe and release any tension and anxiety.I sighed comfortably. I could really get used to this.Maybe George was on to something after all with this yoga thing.

Then Kipps was back with biscuits and sweet rolls, and George brought us out of our meditative state so fast my head spun.We all gathered together - chatting, laughing and snacking - the relaxed atmosphere lingering into a rare, lazy afternoon. 

Just as I suspected, we didn’t need any silly team building activities to bring us closer together- time and shared experience did that.But cozy afternoons with the warmth of companionship in the air instead of the usual chill we spent our nights enduring? Sign me up.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading to the end!
> 
> My mom just completed her yoga teacher training, so this has been my life for the last six months since she practiced on me. The sequence George is doing is the sun salutation.
> 
> I really wanted to include Flo in their little team building activity because she often gets left out, but she has a habit of commandeering the entire room so I disinvited her. Sorry Flo. Maybe George can “take her through the positions sometime.”


End file.
